Jacobson holds on to win Snowmass council seat

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SNOWMASS VILLAGE - After waiting two weeks to find out if his slim lead in the Snowmass Village Town Council race would hold, Chris Jacobson figured he could wait one more night.

The candidate gave up and went to bed Tuesday night before Pitkin County certified its final election results. He learned Wednesday morning that he had, in fact, been elected to the Town Council in a close vote, edging out Darryl Grob and Stan Stokes.

"I'm happy with the results," Jacobson said Wednesday. "I feel great that, as a new candidate, I was able to pull it off."

Councilwoman Markey Butler won re-election to her seat on Nov. 6, as did Mayor Bill Boineau, but the three-way contest for the second council seat up for election was too close to call on election night. Preliminary results had Jacobson ahead of Grob by four votes; Grob led Stokes by 28 votes.

Tuesday's tally by the county of provisional ballots cast Nov. 6 as well as mail-in ballots dropped off late on election day and ballots that had to be "cured" of some deficiency (voters who forgot to sign the envelope on their mail-in ballot, for example) had the potential to alter the preliminary outcome. But it didn't.

The final results in the council race were: Butler, 691 votes; Jacobson, 534; Grob, 520; and Stokes, 499.

The closeness of the race suggests community support for all of the candidates, reasoned Jacobson, who outpolled contenders who had longer tenures as town residents than his seven years. It was Jacobson's first bid for public office.

Grob, who lost a bid for election to a Pitkin County commissioner seat earlier this year, failing to advance out of the primary, took his latest defeat in stride.

"It was going to be what it was going to be," he said. "I believe in the process, so I'm fine."

Grob commended the group of election judges who conducted the counting of provisional ballots this week as "first rate" and said he has no interest in seeking a recount.